Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Context

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Measuring Time is Helon Habila’s most complete novel.
Beautifully crafted and complex, the novel is set in rural Keti,
Northern Nigeria and tells the story of twin brothers Mamo and
Lamamo, who grow up together in the village, but whose lives
eventually follow very different trajectories. Mamo, the first
born, the thoughtful, the “silent observer”, who inherited his
mother’s sickle cell anemia (an illness that puts him in a
precarious relation with time), becomes a history teacher at Keti
community school and also a local historian. Lamamo, the healthier,
stronger, and more adventurous one, leaves his hometown to become a
soldier, a rebel, a fighter in the service of different liberation
armies across the African …

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24875Measuring Time3Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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